We are familiar with the separation of powers in out nation's constitution. No single branch of our government is all powerful. We are often less familiar with the checks placed upon state power and the checks placed upon our voice in decision making, checks on the voice of the people.
Look over the attached pdf in the Google Classroom instructions. Select one of the checks that is listed and share in the comments why you think that this power was given to the national government. Why did the founders want the national government to have this power instead of the states or the people?
As is our practice, please reply to two other comments.
Sample Comment:
· "Article
I, Section 10 - The states cannot tax exports or imports" - This is most likely included in our constitution to avoid inconsistent trade policies between the many states and other nations. John Adams attempted to negotiate trade deals during the confederation period and he was asked by Great Britain/England if he represented one state or all 13. While this power resembles the controversial navigation acts of the 1760s, the young United States sees this power as a priority in 1787.
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 - "The States are restricted from adding States without the consent of the nation and can not join any other state, as to form a bigger state" This is most likely to have been added in order to stifle the ability of people swaying legislature. Once new states are added, there becomes new representatives. More states equates to more representatives backing a certain clause. If states were allowed to add other states, they could create their own so their voice gets heard. But only allowing the government to do such a thing, they regulate the amount of representatives.
ReplyDeleteThis was an important bit for them to include, because if states could make new states, they would be able to establish their points of view as the common viewpoint. It also helps to stop states becoming too independent.
DeleteI agree, and I also think that this lets the country control how and where it develops.
DeleteThis is important because it stops states from having too much representation in the house and avoids corruption.
DeleteI agree, this allows for states and the nation to develop, without the states growing to big or powerful
DeleteI agree. This helps the country in keeping states from maneuvering around laws to get what they want.
DeleteI agree. This clause helps the government ensure that states don't create new ones solely for the purpose of the representatives, so they can't circumvent the rules and essentially give a state more representatives.
DeleteMaking sure that all the states have equal rights and power is very important. It is up to the government to properly maintain the rules.
DeleteI agree because it would keep states from being to strong and keeps them all at even footing.
Delete"Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 - The President can act as the Commander in Chief of state militias if they are acting on behalf of the US." - This clause appoints the president as the Commander in Chief of the military, and it was included in the checks and balances on the states to ensure that states and their militias are still beholden to the federal government and cannot act on their own against other nations. By controlling the power of individual state militias, this limits the amount of power the states have, as they would not be able to participate in any conflicts that the nation as a whole does not want to participate in. It serves to help unify the nation and its goals.
ReplyDeleteThis is important as to avoid states seceding with their military or trying to overthrow the federal government. This will restrict small communities from taking up arms and ensure there is a grater power that is also held accountable.
DeleteI think it also prevents the same kind of revolt that happened to the British, as state militias acting without the permission of the country was how the revolution happened.
DeleteThis is important because it is one of the first "national things" which helps to unify the country
DeleteThis is important because it unifies the country and prevetns the states from rebelling or going against the wishes of a country in case of a military conflict.
Deleteits important because it prevents the states from having too much power or overthrowing the federal government.
DeleteArticle III, Section 3 - States are not allowed to convict citizens to treason.- I think they gave this power to the national government because treason really isnt a state crime, it is the crime of betraying ones own COUNTRY, so states convicting people of it wouldnt make sense.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good point -- if treason against states were a crime, then the states would function more as nations themselves.
DeleteStates cannot decide what the nations law is, therefore they cannot deem that someone has broken it.
DeleteThis makes sense because otherwise states could convict people of commiting treason against the sate not the country which is not good for unity.
DeleteThis works because a state is only recognized as part of a country, and it is not a sovereign state itself, therefore it cannot convict people for treason.
DeleteThat's a good point. I hadn't thought about that
DeleteThat's a very good point. An act of treason isn't really against a singular state, so why should the state charge them?
DeleteThat's a good point that one state shouldn't convict people of treason against the country
DeleteStates not being able to convict citizens of treason does make sense, as states aren't countries.
DeleteArticle I, Section 10, Clause 3 - No state can keep their own standing army or navy, or engage in their own war. These powers are reserved to the national government, and the states cannot assume these powers and act as a “sovereign nation”. This clause means that states can not have their own armies or start their own wars. This power was reserved only for the country, as a state that started a war with another nation would mean that the whole country would get attacked by that other nation. This means that the whole country has to decide together whether to go to war or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this clause makes sure that no one state forces the entire country into war because of their own army.
DeleteMaking one state have the right to engage in war would make the other states feel oppressed, so the government made the rules so that the whole nation has to agree when it came to engage in war.
DeleteI agree that this makes it so that a state can't begin a war for the whole country.
DeleteIf states were allowed to declare war, it would be too complicated and costly to the union of the United States.
DeleteArticle VI, Section 2, Clause 1 - “This Constitution... shall be the Supreme Law of the Land...
ReplyDeleteand ... every state shall be bound thereby.” A ‘check’ on the States of the United States is
the fact that every word in the Constitution is of the highest order, and must be adhered to.
State laws cannot contradict a national law
This shows once and for all that states are below the federal government and they are part of it
DeleteArticle II, Section 2, Clause 2 - "the president appoints Supreme Court justices. This is a check on their voice because they do not have a specific say in who is appointed." The president nominates someone for the position and it is decided upon by the Senate if they are qualified or not. This power is reserved to the national government so that everyone has a voice in important matters. This way, power is not given solely to the people nor the government. The people get to vote for the composition of the government and the Senate gets to vote on matters like the composition of the Supreme Court justices.
ReplyDeleteArticle V, Section 2, Clause 1 - No state can deny members of another state rights which they were given in their state. All states have to respect the rights given to people of another state.This was put in the constitution to prevent states from imposing on the authority of other states and creating struggles. In the future, if a state tries to extend their authority, or try to rule over another state, they will stopped by this rule.
ReplyDeleteYeah i agree, this was put in to make sure that states dont overstep their boundaries in terms of the other states.
DeleteI agree, there needed to be restrictions on the states and they must follow it
DeleteArticle IV, Section 3, Clause 1- "The States are restricted from adding States without the consent of the nation and can not join any other state, as to form a bigger state". I feel this rule is very important because it can keep from states taking advantage of representative rules. When I first read this one I thought that states that were both very democratic for example but had few representatives could merge to gain a larger number. States could use this to their advantage to unfairly get more representatives they re in favor of.
ReplyDeleteArticle 1, Section 10, Clause 3: "No state can keep their own standing army or navy, or engage in their own war. These powers are reserved to the national government, and the states cannot assume these powers and act as a “sovereign nation”." This power was given to the national government to ensure it had power over the states, and make sure they remained part of the US. If each state had it's own military, they would have their own power, and be a de facto sovereign nation, even if they didn't secede. Each state having a standing army would give them too much power and would make it easy for them to disobey the federal government, or massively limit the governments power over them.
ReplyDeleteIf a state had its own army, it could just wage war if there was a disagreement between states or between the state and the federal government.
DeleteIf a state could declare war that would be very dangerous for the country especially after the revolution.
DeleteIf the state could declare war, then Florida would've destroyed its surrounding states by now.
DeleteIf a state could declare war this would cause many problems for the United States as a whole because some states may have problems with other states and it would become an internal battle between them.
DeleteArticle IV, Section 3, Clause 1 - "The states are restricted from adding states without the consent of the nation and can not join any other state, as to form a bigger state." This is most likely a rule that was added because it prevents one state from having too much power. If a state joins together and makes a bigger state, the population would increase, and would thus make an easily majority and make the other states feel oppressed.
ReplyDeleteI agree, a big enough state could be a threat to the nation itself.
DeleteI agree, if states began to merge, power would be massively uneven
DeleteI agree that one state just merging with many other states would make it have too much power and eventually it may end up as two giant states with differing opinions.
Delete"Article V, Section 2, Clause 1 - No state can deny members of another state rights which they were given in their state. All states have to respect the rights given to people of another state." - This clause means, for example, that if one state frees its slaves, those former slaves are free in every other state as well. The writers of the Constitution didn't want some states to have rules that went against other states' rules. This clause could have had implications for the future of slavery at the time.
ReplyDeleteArticle IV Section 3 clause 1 says "The states are restricted from adding States without the consent of the nation and can not join any other state, as to form a bigger state." I think this was included so that one state couldn't become too powerful. If a state grew it could become much more powerful than others.
ReplyDeleteArticle I, Section 10, Clause 3 - No state can keep their own standing army or navy, or engage in their own war. These powers are reserved to the national government, and the states cannot assume these powers and act as a “sovereign nation”. This clause is very important as it says that the states can not declare war. This was reserved for the government because the whole country has to agree upon it, as they don’t want to fall into another war after the revolution.
ReplyDeleteArticle I, Section 10,Clause 3- "No state can keep their own standing army or navy, or engage in their own war. These powers are reserved to the national government, and the states cannot assume these powers and act as a "sovereign nation". I believe this was put in place to maintain such power under control. If each states had their own individual army, they would each obtain their own power, which sooner or later would become too much for the national government. This power was then handed over to the national government in order for it to maintain a specific power over all of the states.
ReplyDeleteThe article I, section 10, clause 1 check was written due to the fact states were allowed to print their own money, and that the national government had no control over trade. This lead to trade in general becoming difficult, as each states would only accept their own money. The exchange rate wasn't also set in place, which made things even more difficult. Restricting to only having the national government regulate trade and print its own money. Not being able to join treaties also limits what the states can do, as it gave them too much power. This means that all states have to be within the treaty if the national government allows it, not each individual states.
ReplyDeleteArticle IV, Section 3, Clause 1 - The States are restricted from adding States without the consent of the nation and can not join any other state, as to form a bigger state, I think this is important because of the fact that the more people there were in a state the more voice they had in the government so if states could freely add themselves to another state it could be a way of abusing the rules that where set and if states could add more states it could also be unfair for states that hadn't added a state as it could bring more people to their side of arguments.
ReplyDeleteYes, this seems like a good balance because we wouldn't want a land war going on between New York and New Jersey.
DeleteYes, It would end up more like a dynasty with individual warlords than a united government
DeleteArticle V, Section 2, Clause 1 - No state can deny members of another state rights which they were given in their state. All states have to respect the rights given to people of another state. If this wasn't implemented then states could give their citizens rights that other states didn't give their own citizens, creating an unfair advantage to certain people in the country.
ReplyDeleteArticle I, Section 8, Clause 1 - The Federal Government gets to put taxes and excises on all
ReplyDeletestates, for the “general welfare” of our nation, no matter if the states refuse them.
This was added because the federal government has to have power over the states, which might be divided on some issues, so to have one power that agrees on an issue and has an idea to stop it, they need to be able to tax.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 - The Federal Government gets to put taxes and excises on all states, for the “general welfare” of our nation, no matter if the states refuse them. This power was given to the national government so it didn't end up like the articles of confederation where the government didn't really have any power at all and wasn't able to do things such as tax. They weren't able to built army's as a result and were basically useless.
ReplyDelete